Fastball

San Diego Padres' Game-Ending Triple Play Was Truly Historic

The San Diego Padres beat the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday night thanks to a historic game-ending triple play.

Brady Farkas

San Diego Padres third baseman Manny Machado (13) and second baseman Jake Cronenworth (9) celebrate on the field after defeating the Chicago White Sox at Petco Park on Sept 22.
San Diego Padres third baseman Manny Machado (13) and second baseman Jake Cronenworth (9) celebrate on the field after defeating the Chicago White Sox at Petco Park on Sept 22. / Orlando Ramirez-Imagn Images
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The San Diego Padres clinched a playoff berth on Tuesday night by beating the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-2 at Dodger Stadium. With the win, the Padres are 91-66, and they are also only 2.0 games back in the National League West. With five games to play, they still have an opportunity to claim the division title.

The game ended in incredibly rare fashion -- with a game-ending triple play. In the bottom of the ninth inning, the Dodgers had runners at first and second with nobody out. Miguel Rojas hit a ground ball to third baseman Manny Machado, who stepped on the bag and then fired to second and onto first for the triple play.

Even more incredible is that Shohei Ohtani was in the on-deck circle and had a chance to tie or win it for the Dodgers if he had just gotten the chance to hit.

How rare is it for a game to end with a triple play? Extremely rare, at least in the current version of the game.

Per Sarah Langs of MLB.com:

the 28th game-ending triple play in MLB history

3rd in wild card era: 6/20/21 NYY, 8/23/09 PHI

1st in Padres history

h/t @Sabr data

The two teams will play again on Wednesday night with first pitch coming at 10:10 p.m. ET. Right-hander Dylan Cease will take the ball for the Padres while Jack Flaherty pitches for the Dodgers.

Cease is 14-11 on the year with a 3.42 ERA while Flaherty is 13-7 with a 3.10. He's been excellent since being acquired in a trade with the Detroit Tigers.

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Brady Farkas

BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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